Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs With Pineapple
Today was a bit of a shit show. Sometimes good intentions turn into total forehead slappers. Like when you clean out your computer and accidentally delete the original photos of a recipe that you hadn’t yet saved to your desktop from Lightroom… failing to realize it until you’ve already cleared out the ol’ trash bin.
Aaaaaaaand they’re gone.
I had quite a few alluring photos of this dish. But now you only get these three.
This is fine. Everything is fine.
Normally I’d let myself spiral into a fit of anxiety, but since I *just* touched on the importance of self-care and being kinder to ourselves in this blog post, I’m determined to train myself to be more chill. So, I walked away from my laptop. I lifted weights, I ate PB-slathered toast, I pet my cat, and I did a fun thing to my hair.
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs With Pineapple.
Kebabs. Kabobs. Skewers. This kind of recipe is a Search Engine Optimization nightmare. So if you’re here, I’m glad you found me and I hope you fall in love with this mouthwatering recipe as hard as I did.
I’m obsessing over kebabs this summer, thanks to these salmon kebabs with chimichurri. There’s just something fun about threading your protein and your fave veggies onto a stick and grilling them in harmony as you slather’em with some sort of finger-licking sauce.
For this recipe, teriyaki sauce seemed appropriate.
Teriyaki, chicken, and pineapple go together so so well, and picking a few veggies to go along with them was pretty easy. You can get creative and choose your own, but we opted for red and orange bell peppers with scallions. Red and orange bells are sweeter than their green counterparts, so they play really well with the sweetness of the warm pineapple and teriyaki sauce. You can use red onions instead of scallions, but I love scallions in anything with an East Asian influence.
I say East Asian influence because teriyaki sauce, though often associated with Japan by Americans, isn’t a traditional Japanese sauce. It’s said that this good stuff originated in Hawaii by Japanese immigrants—which explains why we often see teriyaki paired up with pineapple! (And hey, a big thank you for that.)
You can use store-bought teriyaki, but I do recommend making your own if you have the time; creating it from scratch lets you control the amount of sodium and sugar in the mix.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and tag me on the Insta @killing__thyme! I love seeing your creations, and you could be featured in my monthly newsletter <3
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Kebabs With Pineapple
Ingredients
- 4 large chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
- Kosher salt and cracked black pepper
- 1 cup teriyaki sauce, divided
- 1/4 cup pineapple juice
- 1 pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into bite-sized chunks
- 2 bell peppers (red, orange, or yellow), cut into bite-sized chunks
- 1 bunch of scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces (green parts only; save the white parts for later).
Garnishes.
- Sesame seeds
- Reserved white ends of scallions, thinly sliced (optional)
- Chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
Instructions
- Pre heat your grill to high heat.
- Place your chunks of chicken into a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Pour about 1/4 cup of Teriyaki sauce over the, as well as the pineapple juice. (If you buy one of those pre-cored pineapples, there's often some juice at the bottom of the container. Use that. Or, buy pineapple juice. You can also sub-in orange juice if necessary.) Toss the chicken to coat it. If you feel you need a bit more Teriyaki sauce, drizzle another TBSP or two over the chicken and toss to coat, until you're satisfied; set this aside while you prep and cut your veggies and pineapple.
- When your veggies are ready, start threading the skewers by alternating veggies, pineapple, and chicken pieces.
- Place the kebabs in a baking dish and prepare a small bowl of the rest of the Teriyaki sauce. Bring it all to the grill and place the kebabs onto the grill carefully. Cook, and use tongs to turn occasionally turn the skewers. Once the meat is cooked on the outside, you can start brushing the kebabs with the extra Teriyaki sauce. Use as much or as little as you want. Do this until the chicken is cooked through—about 15 minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, make sure the chicken is at an internal temperature of 165° F.
- Garnish the kebabs with sesame seeds, the fresh chopped herbs, and or the thinly sliced white ends of the scallions. You can eat these on their own or as a side; we enjoyed them over coconut lime rice :)
Notes
- IMPORTANT: If you're using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak them a few hours before grill time (or go by the instructed soaking time on the packaging). If you don't, they'll burn and possibly catch fire. (Yikes!)
- In this recipe, I tell you to cut the meat and veggies into "bite-sized chunks". Aim for about 1" x 1" pieces.
- There's no need to marinate the meat, since marinating doesn't actually penetrate into most meats, so it's a waste of time. But if you can't let go of the idea of marinating, go ahead.
